Portugál kapcsolat

Amo te Portugal!!!!

During the week I became fond of this country!!!
This one week (unfortunately) was one of the best weeks in my life!
We got to know the Portugese people, the other way of thinking and we became acquainted with an other lifestyle!
First of all, the Portugese people always have plenty of time and they never are in a hurry!!
I think the reason for this is very simple! They live in a Mediterranean country! That's it!But for us, coming from a continental country, this way of living is very strange!!!
Because this basic difference between the two climates, they have other type of fruits!
I was very happy when I saw a lemon tree in the garden and I took some pictures of it immediately!
But my host was surprised and looked at me like an alien! He didn't understand my reaction! For them the lemon tree is normal! And when he came to Hungary, he bought some lemons for me!!

Of course, during this week other cultural differences came to the light!
For instance, when my host family was at home they always wore their shoes while I was in my pink slippers!!! It could have been a funny picture!! (sorry, but I don't like wearing shoes in the flat.....)
Another humorous scene: I was wearing a jumper because I was cold! (sometimes I felt I lived on the Arctic...), while my family was in T-shirts and shorts!!!
Even today I still don't understand how it is possible that they weren't cold.
As I see in Portugal it's a general custom that they don't use central heating!!
Interesting.........

However, the Portugese people are very nice, kind and friendly!!!!
Almost everybody can speak English thus the communication wasn't problem!
In fact, I had several pleasureful conversations with my family!!!
Except my host's little brother (he was afraid of me...) and his sister!!!
She understood everything in English, but she replied to me in Portugese!!!
Although, at the end of the week I spoke Portugese!! (a little bit......)
But the Portugese guys also learnt lots of Hungarian words!!!

The long and short of it is that we had numerous unforgettable experiences and I think I can reckon the Portugese guys among my friends!!
I would like to keep the contact with them!!
I hope, we will manage to do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Orsolya Róka

My name is Hédi Sramkó and I attended at the Portuguese student exchange program which lasted from the 12th to 19th of February, 2007.

In fact this trip seemed to offer many positive things, even more that I had expected before.

In the beginning I was afraid of staying alone at a totally strange family but it turned out in no time that they are really kind and hospitable. Soon after the initial fears I started to feel comfortable thanks to the programs organized for the Hungarians: we (the Hungarians and some of the Portuguese hosts) went to see the beach, visited a huge aquarium and we could see many parts of Lisbon, like the centre of Belém.

To be honest the Portuguese students were marvellous with their permanent smile on the faces and were quite helpful. Almost during the whole week I had to talk to them in English (as it was the only way to understand each other), that is why my expressiveness improved significantly. When somebody is in such circumstances when she can rely only on one common language to socialize, to describe her thoughts and feelings the use of that language becomes evident, sooner or later she won't even realize that English is used as a mother tongue even just for a few days.

On the other hand I was surprised by their different cultural customs and lifestyles.

The eating habits are the most diverse from ours as the dinner starts usually at 10PM. In addition the relationship between the parents and kids is much stronger, they are closely connected with each other. This experience, this new way of life taught me many spankers.

Because of the project I had to keep contact with the students from my school and I feel that now I have better talent in solving problems, and organizing appointments.

The theme of this work was logging and timber consumption. Due to the Comenius Project I could not only hear about the Portuguese paper factories but could even see them. These two mean something really different to me. An interesting personal impression will accompany me all along my life and will give me an everlasting experience.

One more positive thing can be mentioned which is connected to the hosts. It was an elevating realization after a few conversations that these pupils are the same human beings that we are, they are not different at a least as individuals. The only difference lies in the discrepancy of spoken languages.

There is one issue that I feel sorry for. This is the length of the trip. We could spend only one week there, by the time we had got to like and had got closer to each other we had to return to Hungary. However, I feel that I gained real friends during this very short period of time and I will certainly keep in touch with many of the Portuguese students.

All in all I do recommend to everyone to take part in such an opportunity during which everybody can spend unforgettable times in beautiful places, plus each person can improve the level of his/her language acknowledge at the same time.

Hédi Sramkó